- When Katrina’s daughter companied of a sore hip she never expected to end up in hospital.
- She contracted an infection which led to her bone infection in her hip called osteomyelitis and sepsis.
- Now she’s on the mend thanks to her amazing doctors and the Starlight team.
Here Katrina, 46, Craigieburn, Vic tells her story in her own words.
Waking up with a start, I heard my daughter, Harper, then six, calling me from the bathroom.
‘My left hip is really sore,’ she cried, as I padded out to see her.
‘You’ll be ok, let’s get you back to bed, it’s the middle of the night,’ I said.
In the morning, Harper was still in pain and unable to bear weight on her left foot.
Super lethargic, I helped her to the couch where she stayed for the day, watching TV.
Just yesterday, Harper had spent hours playing basketball with her teammates, it was hard to fathom how much had changed.
‘It’s not like her, she’s usually full of energy,’ my hubby, Craig, 54, commented.
‘I know, it’s probably a viral infection,’ I reasoned.
Later that day, Harper had a high temperature, so I gave her some pain relief to bring it down.
But the next morning, Harper was still sick.
By now she’d lost her appetite and was vomiting.
‘My hip still hurts,’ she sobbed.
She spent another day on the couch.
By early next morning, with still no improvement, I took her to Emergency.
Craig worked near the hospital, so I told him I’d keep him posted.
‘It’s probably nothing serious,’ I told him.
At the hospital, Harper had blood tests, x-rays and an ultrasound to see what was going on.
‘We can’t work it out, the x-ray on her hip came back fine, we’ll do an MRI as well,’ the doctor said.
They also hooked her up to a drip, to replenish the fluids and nutrients she had lost.
Harper’s blood results showed that her infection markers were high, but they didn’t know why.
As the hours of waiting for answers went on, Craig finished work and rushed to our girls’ side.
‘You go home for a shower and come back after,’ he said.
By this point Harper was very drowsy.
But as soon as I arrived home, Craig phoned, asking me to come back as the doctor wanted to speak to us.
There a doctor sat us down in a private room.
‘Harper has osteomyelitis, a bone infection, in her left hip,’ he said.
‘She did have sepsis, a serious blood infection and it manifested into osteomyelitis,’ he explained.
‘Oh no!’ I gasped.
She needs surgery to clean the infection from her bone
They weren’t sure how she’d got the infection, but that it may have developed due to a weakening in Harper’s pelvis, which happens as kids grow.
‘We’ll get her on a high dosage of antibiotics to try to kill the infection, but we’re not too sure how she’ll respond,’ he added.
If it didn’t work, Harper would need surgery to clean the infection from her bone.
‘When can I play basketball again?’ Harper asked.
‘We’ll have to wait and see,’ I soothed.
Luckily, over the next few days, Harper’s condition started to improve.
Her energy levels were up and she was walking around, even able to bear some weight on her left foot.
As she got better, Harper spent her days at the Starlight Express Room, where she played with slime and painted.
It was a great distraction from the constant tests, needles and hospital life.
What is osteomyelitis?
Osteomyelitis is a serious bone infection caused by bacteria or fungi. It can occur when an infection spreads from nearby tissue or through the bloodstream to the bone.
After a week in hospital, our brave girl was well enough to go home.
Still, Harper needed antibiotics for a few more weeks but was able to go back to school and have some normality.
Her hip still needed to recover before she hit the basketball court again, but Harper was able to get her energy out with some laps in the pool.
It’s now been eight months since Harper got sick and she’s much better.
Her hip has made a full recovery and three months after getting discharged, tests declared the infection was gone.
She still gets tired and experienced an unsettled tummy due to the antibiotics she was taking six-weeks post operation, but that should improve over time.
Most importantly, our girl is back playing basketball again and she couldn’t be happier about this!
Starlight is encouraging Australians to host a games event to raise $250,000 to help sick kids like Harper.
Sign up at Starlight UNO Games.
